Random: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant Garde Order

Robert Rauschenberg is one of the most important visual artists of the second half ofthe twentieth century. In Random Order, Branden Joseph examines Rauschenberg's work in the contextof the American neo-avant-garde. One of the foundations of his study is Rauschenberg's professionalrelationship with experimental composer John Cage. From the moment of their encounter at BlackMountain College in 1952, Joseph argues, Rauschenberg and Cage initiated a new avant-garde project,one that approached the idea of difference not in terms of negation but as a positive force.Claiming that Rauschenberg's work cannot be understood solely from the standpoint of the FrankfurtSchool--whose theories have dominated discussions of avant-garde and neo-avant-gardeaesthetics--Joseph turns to the theoretical positions of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida.Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde was not a simple repetition of earlier avant-garde movements, Josephshows, but a series of practices that opposed the rise of postwar spectacle, commodification, andmass conformity.Beginning with the White Paintings, Joseph examines Rauschenberg?s artisticdevelopment from 1951 to 1971. He looks at the black paintings, Red Paintings, Elemental Paintingsand Elemental Sculptures, Combines and Combine paintings, transfer drawings and silkscreens,performances, and explorations in art and technology. Joseph?s study not only offers newinterpretations of Rauschenberg?s work, but also deepens our understanding of the entireneo-avant-garde project.

Branden W. Joseph is Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and an editor of the journal Grey Room (MIT Press).